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Monday, August 13, 2012

It’s time for the whip to go. Horses don’t need them if they’re trained without them from Day 1. They are outdated and serve no purpose save for giving the animal a reminder that he’d better get his butt in gear.

I’ve heard horsemen say the horses don’t feel much, probably nothing more than us slapping a mosquito off our arms, so why use them at all? Habit. That’s all. Laziness.

American’s favorite jockey, Chantal Sutherland, faces a four-day suspension while riding at Ascot Saturday for excessive whipping. She raced over in the Mother Country as part of an international competition. In fairness to Sutherland, American racing loves its whips as much as Devo and gives horses perhaps too much spanking. For a conservative and Puritanical country like the US, you’d think the whip would’ve been cast out during Manifest Destiny. So jockey Kieran Fallon, Lord of the Manor for the Great Britain and Ireland team, came to Sutherland’s defense in the National newspaper in England.

“It’s sad, really,” Fallon was quoted as saying. “All Chantal was doing was giving a couple of little taps. Riders tap the horses to encourage them. It is not as if they are hurting the horses. It should have been overlooked for today. They are foreign riders who are not used to our (rules). From their own country, where they can hit a horse as many times as they want, they have suffered for it.”

Horse racing has an image problem. This proclamation is right up there with “football has a head injury problem” or “Ted Williams’s son had daddy issues” or “Hollywood has a Jennifer Aniston problem”. Whether the whip does little more than give the horse a moment of encouragement, then get rid of them. People railed, and I mean railed, Gabriel Saez when Eight Belles broke down in the 2008 Kentucky Derby. He whipped her too many times down the lane!

Trust me, that ain’t why this gigantic filly broke both front ankles. Dr. Larry Bramlage said that was a freak accident (YouTube the video if you want to see Kenny Rice's interview). If anything, a casual fan sees whipping through their head: if someone did that to me it would hurt like hell. I think nuns think twice about lashing kids these days.

So the game could start on the yearlings now. Right now. I hear Todd Pletcher bought a big one. When they break and train these babies, keep the whip out of it. Take all whips away from jockeys. They can keep both hands on the wheel. When it’s go-time, horses run. A smoochy sound, vigorous shaking, extra rein. Horses are smart and when trained with a new trigger, they will explode as always.

Watch this clip with Dr. Paul McGreevy as he examines the great Black Caviar run and ask yourself if the stick has a place in horse racing or not. This sport can do without a concussive implement as it has run out of eyes to blacken.
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The removal of the whip from horse racing is like the struggle to remove the ban on gays serving openly in the military (I know, I know, leave it to a pinko commy Massachusetts handicapper to bring in a gay rights issue - I also apologize for using this analogy on a subject involving whips...).

Everyone understands why these two customs came to be originally. Everyone (deep down, on some level) also understands that times have changed and, to quote Jeffrey Lebowski, “certain things have come to light”, and that these two customs are/were probably causing more harm than good.

With gays in the military, it was only a matter of time. Regardless of whether or not the issue was having an actual positive or negative effect on the military, public perception and public outrage eventually made the change happen. It took a while, and it got ugly at times, but after foundations were laid (apologies) and walls were slowly chipped away at, the change finally came. And when it did, most people realized it wasn’t that big of a deal and we probably shouldn’t have wasted two decades fretting about it.

I think whips in horse racing will go the same way. Sometime in the year 2022, on some random day in February, some jock in Arizona (I am sure Arizona will be the last state to go along with this) will spank a horse with the stick for the last time, and no one will really notice or care. (in part because we’ll be building resorts - you guessed it - on the mooooooooooon!!!!)

B, Nice job with this touchy feely subject. You “hit” this one out of the park. But why stop here? May I ask…

Whipping tired horses in the name of sport is difficult to justify. Is it any more cruel than:
1) Injecting horses with drugs like Lasix whether they need it or not?
2) Caging horses in stalls for 23 hours a day at the racetrack?
3) Man playing matchmaker for financial gain by forcing studs to see hundreds of mares yearly?

Mama don’t take my Kodachrome away? I can hear the Jockeys, Trainers and Punters screaming about safety and steering issues if jockeys stopped using whips.

Yes everything looks WORSE in black and white. The McGreevy report is eye openning. The so called padded whip does not safeguard horses from pain. Whip rules are not and can not be properly policed. More often than not the whip lands on the unintended place of the horse’s body part. That if the whip is needed for steering and safety, why is the whip struck 90% right handed. Apprentice jockeys whip more than veteran jockeys.

“This sport can do without a concussive implement as it has run out of eyes to blacken”.
Maybe it’s time we all take off our rose colored glasses. Black Caviar may be the pin up girl for hands and heels riding. If jockeys stopped using whips, horses would still win races. Ahhhh I can see the writing on the wall.

The spin goes on…

When I think back
On all the crap I learned in high school
It’s a wonder
I can think at all
And though my lack of edu---cation
Hasn’t hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall

Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day, Oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don’t take my Kodachrome away

If you took all the girls I knew
When I was single
And brought them all together for one night
I know they’d never match
my sweet imagination
everything looks WORSE in black and white

Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day, Oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don’t take my Kodachrome away

The real point I think you’re trying to make is you’re bitter you didn’t get to see Bruce at Fen Way. It seems you were “Dancing in the Dark” tending to your “Hungry Heart” near your “Hometown” while you “Took Care of Your Own.”

Almost speechless. You’re three points are solid. Horses being penned up as long as they are—given they are born grazers—may be the greatest stress on them.

The whip is what people see. Seems a good place to start.

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